If you’ve heard it once, you’ve likely heard it a thousand times: Japan has fantastic food. Indeed, a large amount of our work focuses on covering that very issue. In the last few months, we’ve touched on everything from “ugly duckling” tomatoes trending on social media to eye-popping Happy Rainbow Ramen. On the sweeter side, matcha sweets and premium cow doughnuts from Krispy Kreme have caught our eye—and of course you can’t forget some CBD beer to wash it all down.

However, we'd be remiss not to mention a seasonal favorite: persimmons. The orange, oblong fruit is a common site at supermarkets and fruit stands throughout the autumn and winter months in Japan. Indeed, they are hard to miss—it seems every year I'm fortunate enough to be gifted a box or two to snack on. Others often experience the same.

Persimmons can be peeled, quartered, and eaten as is. They have a firm texture, perhaps comparable to an apple, and are somewhat sweet. Due to the mild flavor, I often cover my persimmons with a bit of honey. They can also be eaten dried, which brings out the sweetness some, or mixed with milk and turned into a delicious pudding.

Persimmons and bleu cheese

Leave it to the internet. As curious and innovative as digital natives are, its hardly surprising to see several experimenting and spicing up a seasonal favorite. While persimmons are sometimes baked with cheese, SNS users have been indulging in a newfound craze and posting the results. Viola, persimmon and bleu cheese a la Twitter.

Taste test

Salivating and starving, I found it impossible to hold back after scrolling over this gourmet Twitter feed. Naturally, on our next trip to the grocery store, my SO and I were sure to pick up some persimmons and bleu cheese.

All and all, not too much of a hassle. We had to go two a second grocery store to find bleu cheese, and we had trouble finding persimmons that had softened adequately. We paid about 600 JPY for the cheese and 260 JPY for the persimmons. We waited a few days for the persimmons to soften further before we finally grew impatient:

Unfortunately, my eye for food porn is not quite as keen as others...Nevertheless, I can attest that persimmon and bleu cheese make for a delicious snack. Overall, the flavor is kind of like a creamy, somewhat subdued, take on a sweet and salty snack. The creaminess of the cheese mixes nicely with the sweetness and fleshy texture of the persimmon.

Regardless, we thought to spice things up a bit. As you can see in the photo, we included some honey which, obviously, brought out the sweetness. We also tried slightly grilling the cheese. As it turns out, heating the cheese was a home run, and it made the dish feel more decadent. Overall, the pair is an A+ combo for an autumn or wintertime snack.